Chance, Necessity, Love

What exactly is cancer? And where is God and what is love amidst the complex evolutionary development of all cancers? In Chance, Necessity, Love: An Evolutionary Theology of Cancer, Hummel and Woloschak address these questions that arise for many people with cancer and in all who grapple with making meaning of science about cancers. In order to do so, the authors first clarify new scientific findings about cancer and then offer faithful and wise theological perspectives on these discoveries. In doing so, they make plain what cannot and can be changed about cancer. And, in doing so, they show how cancer is an evolutionary disease that develops according to the same dynamics of chance (that is, random occurrences) and necessity (law-like regularities) at work in all other evolutionary phenomena. Therefore, they ask: where is God and what is love within the evolutionary chance and necessity operative throughout all aspects of cancer? They offer the readers thoughtful responses to this question and many others--life, death, hope, acceptance, and love--given the evolutionary nature of cancer.

""Chance, Necessity, Love is an indispensable theological work on how to come to terms with the evolutionary chance and necessity of cancer. This book restores a powerful sense of comprehensibility amid otherwise meaningless suffering. This is a most valuable contribution and by far the most satisfying theological treatment of cancer that I have ever read.""
--Mladen Turk, Associate Professor, Niebuhr Distinguished Chair, Elmhurst College
 
""This book is a major contribution--marked by expertise and wisdom. It combines a presentation of Cancer Science 101 with in-depth religious and theological wrestling with the mystery of cancer in a world created by a loving God. This will be an important source for many years to come.""
--Philip Hefner, Professor Emeritus of Theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
 
""Hummel and Woloschak's yoking of cancer and evolution to a theology of love and hope is desperately needed and wonderfully crafted. It invites the reader into the science of a disease that touches everyone's life at some point and makes meaning in this chaotic world of chance and necessity.""
--Lea F. Schweitz, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; Director, Zygon Center of Religion and Science

""This book addresses the paradox of cancer from the standpoint of biology and allows the reader to ponder how such a paradox of nature makes the concept of cancer acceptable from the perspective of religion. The biological underpinnings of this disease are outlined excellently, making it clear that cancer is an inevitable side effect of being alive on planet Earth.""
--Tatjana Paunesku, Research Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology Dept., Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

Leonard Hummel is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care and Director of Supervised Clinical Ministry at Gettysburg Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Gayle Woloschak is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Northwestern University in Chicago and Associate Director for the Zygon Center for Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology Chicago.